(Volos, Greece , 1888–1978 Rome) Portrait of Raissa, signed, dated G. de Chirico 1926, oil on canvas, 92 x 74 cm, framed, (PP)

Provenance:
Galleria del Milione, Milan (verso adhesive label)
Galleria Annunciata, Milan (verso adhesive label + 2 stamps)
Galleria d’Arte del Naviglio, Milan (verso adhesive label + 1 stamp)
Galleria d’arte del Cavallino, Venice (remains of an adhesive label)
Galleria Falsetti, Prato (stamp verso)
Private Collection, Italy

Literature:
M. Fagiolo dell’Arco/ P. Baldacci, Giorgio De Chirico Parigi 1924–1929, Milan, 1982, page 469, no. 59 with ill.;
C. Bruni Sakraischick, Catalogo Generale Giorgio de Chirico, Milan 1987, vol. V, no. 500 with ill.

This piece shows the first wife of Giorgio de Chirico, the Russian dancer Raissa Gurievich. They met each other at the time when Raissa was dancing in a Stravinsky ballet and de Chirico and other prominent artists were frequent guests at an intellectual salon, which met at the Signorelli House in Rome in the 1920s. At this time, Raissa was still married to the choreographer Kroll. When exactly they became a couple is not known, but Raissa was able to convince Giorgio de Chirico to come to Paris to live with her. In June 1925, de Chirico informed Pierre Roy by means of a curious postcard that he would move to Paris in the fall, writing that his new love, the Slavic, Jewish lady, whom he was extremely fond of, was gone, but that she and he were still very much platonic friends. This is a good description of the nature of their relationship. In Paris, Raissa stopped dancing and dedicated herself to studying archaeology, an interest that she shared with de Chirico. In general, their relationship was one of balanced cultural harmony.
The great artistic skill of de Chirico can be clearly seen in the realistic presentation of this portrait. This reality, however, appears to be softened by a metaphysical layer. A distanced atmosphere pervades; the gaze of Raissa appears dreamy. The pleats in the dress are repeated in the structure of the wicker chair and the background. The similarity in the color of the clothing and the background limits the depth of the perspective, evoking a flat-like effect that is broken by the emphasis placed on the chair, face and hands.